To End Partnership in Appeal Drive

September 1, 1935

The partnership of the American Zionist Organization and the Joint Distribution Committee for a united drive for funds in America will definitely not be renewed next year as the result of a decision adopted yesterday at a special meeting of the American delegation to the Congress.

Instead a separate Zionist campaign will probably be conducted in America for all Zionist funds jointly, and the incoming Zionist Executive will probably delegate Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Miss Henrietta Szold and David Ben-Gurion to assist in the American campaign.

Sharp criticism of the partnership arrangement between the Joint Distribution Committee and the Zionist Organization of America, was voiced earlier by Baruch Zuckerman, formerly of New York and now of Jerusalem, a director of the Keren Hayesod, Palestine Foundation Fund. Mr. Zuckerman charged that because the United Palestine Appeal is merged with the campaign of the Joint for philanthropic purposes in Europe, Zionist propaganda work has suffered in America.

Yesterday’s special meeting of the American Zionist delegation was convoked by the present Zionist Executive and the administration of the Keren Hayesod. Eliezer Kaplan, treasurer of the World Zionist Organization, was principal speaker. He questioned the advisability of continuing the present arrangement in the $3,250,000

United Jewish Drive in America, whereby only 40 per cent of the money raised is to go to Palestine and for the Zionist Organization’s Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews in Palestine, of which Dr. Chaim Weizmann is the head.

The American delegates, including Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Dr. Israel Goldstein, Louis Lipsky, Mrs. Edward Jacobs, Abraham Goldberg, Rabbi Wolf Gold and Isaac Hamlin, emphasized that this agreement was necessary because of local circumstances. They admitted, however, that Zionist propaganda suffered in America because of subordination to the relief propaganda of the Joint.

According to the decision of the meeting, the agreement between the Zionist Organization of America and the Joint Distribution Committee will not be renewed when it expires in January, 1936.